Re:Maybe People Just Want to Play (Score 1)

It's true that the politcs of language are pretty distorted, but I disagree with your example. The use of the word "nigger" within african american urban culture is very rarely pejorative, it's a term that can be only used by those who could be targetted by it. If an average slashdot user (see: middle class white male) were to use it pejoratively in a public forum, it would be innapropriate and it wouldn't take an activist or someone who's overly political to be offended by it. The usage of terms reffering to homosexuality as pejorative terms is clearly not primarily happening within the gay culture here. If you're going to use the word fag, you can't expect there to not be political undertones, period. The fact of the matter, and the root of my issue here is the idea that actions are only political when undertaken by activists or politicians. The use of language, the modes of commerce we engage in on a daily basis, the food we eat, practically every action we make has political reprocussions. To argue that people should shut up about politics is essentially to argue that you should be allowed to behave any way you want and that nobody should be able to dissent. This would work perfectly fine if it weren't for the fact that even our mundane actions, like the language we use, have effects on other people. The average slashdot user doesn't have to be aware of this, because we very rarely find ourselves in contact with a significant mainstream force within society that is prejudiced against us. We can imagine that how we behave is perfectly normal and acceptable and that anyone complaining is just being a spoil sport. I'm not a particularly P.C. person, I use offensive language sometimes, sometimes with the intention to offend. But I think people should be aware that it's not a defensible position to use language that is offensive to some and insist that there are no political reprocussions attatched to doing so.